The present disclosure relates to spot welding electrode removal apparatuses used in, for example, automobile production lines.
Conventionally, spot welding techniques of pressing electrode mounted on a shank end of a welding gun to steel plates, applying a pressure thereto, and causing energization to provide resistance heating to the steel plates to weld them together have been used in automobile production lines.
Deterioration of the condition of the above electrode results in deterioration of the quality of a welded part, and therefore, the electrode periodically has to be removed from a shank to exchange the electrode for another one that is in an excellent condition. In automobile production lines, an electrode is generally removed from a shank by a spot welding electrode removal apparatus, and for example, in a spot welding electrode removal apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2009-262201 (Paragraphs [0038]-[0051] and FIGS. 4 and 7), a disk-shaped rotor is rotatably provided around the center of rotation of the apparatus, the electrode is placed such that the center of the electrode coincides with the center of rotation of the rotor. The rotor is provided with a contact part that contacts part of an outer peripheral surface of the electrode. In the rotor, a linear operating lever is fixed to extend along a radial direction and face the contact part so that a position in which the electrode is set is between the operating lever and the contact part. When the electrode is provided between the contact part and the operating lever, and the operating lever is operated to allow the rotor to rotate in one direction, an end of the operating lever adjacent to the contact part presses with force a portion of an outer peripheral surface of the electrode away from the contact part to sandwich the electrode with the contact part, and the operating lever is further operated to allow the electrode to rotate in one direction together with the rotor, whereby the electrode is removed from the shank end.